Want to Improve HR: View HR As A "System"

Yesterday consumer advocate and radio and TV personality Clark Howard had a show segment on a hospital (I believe it was Geisinger Health System and their ProvenCare system) in which he discussed their system approach to providing healthcare. He talked about how they have a protocol for ensuring that patients get the proper treatment, which includes a strict checklist that must be completely checked before anyone gets operated on. This "system" they have put in place has been so successful in reducing relapses and thus greatly reducing costs that they now give 90-day warranties on certain procedures. This means that if you need further care within the 90-day period there is no additional cost to you, the patient. It has increased the "wellness" of the patients and has reduced costs by 15%.

This got me to thinking about HR and the fact that it is a system and as such could probably benefit from a strict protocol similar to what is used at Geisinger. I know many HR departments have checklists for various procedures, yet many are not followed. We have a checklist for hiring, yet many times I-9s are not completed. We have checklists for terminations, yet many times a form is missing or ignored. These checklists, often poorly done, are for discrete segments of HR and could use some improvement. If we used them strictly we might avoid bad hires, bad terminations, poor reviews, missing reviews, undocument promotions or demotions, expired visas or missed enrollments. Think about that. Anything you can improve in your shop?

But a bigger picture comes from thinking about HR as a system and realizing that things we do in compensation, e.g., also has an impact on recruitment, promotions, employee relations, terminations, retirement and benefit costs. I think it would be a major change for many HR departments to sit down in a working session and go through a checklist asking the question "If we put this in place how will it affect ......?" This might help some of us avoid problems caused by implementation of "programs" where we have not thought about the impact on a bigger system. It would also help companies that have a tendency to implement the "HR or management program de jour". You can ward off managers and executives who bring you "the newest and the best."

Who knows, this approach might lead to better care for your "patients" and reduce your operating costs as well.

If you are reading this and have such a system in place PLEASE leave a comment and tell the rest of us about how it works (or doesn't). Let us learn from you.

April 15th Carnival of Human Resources

Chris Young hosts the April 15th version of the Carnival of Human Resources at his blog Maximize Possibility. Some of the great articles there include:

• Ann Bares, Compensation Force - For Strategic Rewards, There Must First be a Strategy
  
• Anna Farmery, The Engaging Brand - 10 Lessons for Life
  


• Susan Heathfield, About Human Resources - Company Layoff Practices Matter: They'll Remember How They Feel
  


• HR Minion - It's Called Due Diligence
  


• HR Bartender - HR's Moment of Truth
  


• Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership - Leaders Decide, Let Them Learn How
  


• Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership - Moon Shots for Management: Management 2.0


• And others, including yours truly.

Check it out for a wealth of knowledge in one small place.

And You Would Belong to the Union Why?

This got some play on a radio show yesterday, so I thought I would mention it again. The SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, is being struck by the union that has organized the workers of the SEIU. Say what?? Yes, that is true. the Union of Union Representatives has filed unfair labor practice charges against the SEIU, according to the Washington Post article, which said "The workers union's leaders say that the SEIU is engaging in the same kind of practices that some businesses use: laying off workers without proper notice, contracting out work to temporary-staffing firms, banning union activities and reclassifying workers to reduce union numbers." The quoted a union official ""It's completely hypocritical," said Malcolm Harris, president of the workers union. "This is the union that's been at the forefront of progressive issues, around ensuring that working people and working families are taken care of, but when it comes to the people that work for SEIU, they haven't set the same standards."

The article further quoted Harris saying "... his union's understanding is that the layoffs are the result of budget troubles faced by the SEIU, which, on top of the California dispute, spent $80 million during the 2008 election and is planning to spend tens of millions more to advocate on behalf of Obama's health-care plan and card check." The article also mentioned that "Fewer than half of the workers at SEIU chapters are unionized, and Harris's union's contract with SEIU forbids it from trying to help organize SEIU employees in local chapters."

My first question is, if the SEIU is so great why is it necessary to have their workers represented by another union?? My next question is, why would anyone want to be represented by a union who mistreats its own workers? The SEIU seems to be more about making Andy Stern a powerful man as opposed to making things better for workers. He is on a power grab, waging war on other unions. But it seems that his "better world" may be falling apart on him. Some of the unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO following the SEIU have gone back or are considering so. Regardless, any company being organized by the SEIU certainly needs to use this example of how the SEIU treats its own workers as a picture of what the world really looks like.

Vow to be Visible!

I am back from vacation. Yes, I had a great time, thanks for asking. Having disappeared for a week or so I thought about visibility as I came back. Two blog posts by other bloggers prompted this thought, so I thought I would pass on their ideas and add a couple of my own.

The first thought comes from Alan Collins writer of Success In HR in his post Seven No B.S. HR Career Strategies Your Boss Won’t Tell You About! His fourth point is "Visibility is not an official HR competency, but it should be." Alan makes the comment "...focusing on doing what you do better than anyone else and trusting that that alone is enough, guarantees you one thing and one thing only: a long life laboring in oblivion." The implication is that you need to "toot your own horn." People within your organization need to know that you are good, not just your boss. My experience has been that you can increase your visibility by working on committees, task forces, etc. You can also increase your visibility by being a good speaker and making good company presentations. Alan also makes the comment that writing a blog can increase you visibility. I can attest, it does.

Kris Dunn, The HR Capitalist, makes the comment "Develop a professional identity outside the workplace, and you'll never be held hostage intellectually to the job you currently have." In his post How a Sucky Economy Makes A Professional Identity Outside of the Workplace More Important... he makes the point that having an identity outside the workplace is protection against the psychological impact of losing your job. I think it also makes you somewhat more resistant to losing your job. So how do you get a professional identity outside of your workplace? Well following Alan Collin's advice of writing a blog can help. But there are other ways too. Volunteer! There are many non-profits that need help, especially on their Boards of Directors. This allows you to demonstrate your leadership ability and your decisionmaking skills. It can be fulfilling, challenging and provide you a stretch. It can also position you to go to work for someone else if you lose your current postion.

So vow to be visible! It will make you a better current employee and a better future employee.

Carnival of HR April Edition and Other Stuff Too

In case you missed it the Fistful of Talent blog site posted the April version of the Carnival of HR. Great reading in human resources all in one place.

On April 5th Dan McCarthy will host the Leadership Carnival at his blog Great Leadership. I will have a post in there as well. Good reading on leadership.

On Thursday, April 9th I will have a blog post appear in the Atlanta Journal Constitution Online version in the HR Roundtable column. So check it out on Thursday by clicking here and looking for the recent post on vacations.

In the meantime I will be on vacation. Out of touch, no computer. R&R. Hiking, waterfalls, reading and coffee in the mountains of Western North Carolina. See you in a week or so.

"What Should I Do With My Life Now?": A Discussion of a Po Bronson Article

Author Po Bronson (see his bio here) has an article in the current, April 2009, issue of Fast Company magazine that is the same as the title of this blog post. In this article he discusses one aspect of the the question "What do I do with my life now?" His original premise,form six years ago, was that people and companies were better off if people were doing something they really cared about. And if they did "They would work extra hard and innovate their way out of this black hole." His discussion in this article is about six major fallacies that people project onto this dilemma. These are:

Myth 1: People are the architects of their own change. "Extremely few people quit because of career ennui. (definition) Rather , most are pushed into change. They're laid off or can't make ends meet or have at-home demands or find their new , postmerger boss to be an absolute ass." Comment: My personal experience matches this. Although I voluntarily left several postions I did so not because of boredom, there was typically some other situation that was not to my liking. And of course the once I was let go in a downsizing. I would like to think that I have been the architect of my own change, but perhaps not. And most other people I know had job change happen TO them as opposed to making it happen.

Myth 2: All it takes is passion. "I call this the Modern Dream Machine Industry. Media companies have made a killing selling .... false claims that you can just dust off your fantasies and live your dream." Comment: We would all like to believe you can go and do what you love to do and the money will follow. All you have to do it do it with passion. But if you have been around for any period of time you know that is not generally true. There does have to be a market, and passion must be accompanied by planning and sacrifice

Myth 3: Your dream job has no sucky parts. "I call this the Fallacy of Intrisic Fit. There's this notion that you should love the mere act of what you do so much that just by virtue of it being Monday morning and you're at work, neurotransmitters of joy will drip on your brain all day. That is not how real people do it. All jobs have things you hate about them. But real people feel fulfilled enough by the overall purpose that the crummy parts are worth it." Comment: I know I have never had a job without some crummy parts. And I don't think I have EVER talked to someone who loved EVERY aspect of their job.

Myth 4: You'll love the job for the job. "There is an old parable about the three bricklayers..All three men have a sense of purpose (money, family, building a cathedral). Not one said, 'I just love laying bricks.' Doing something for the sheer love of it is not what real people mean when they say their work provides a sense of purpose." Comment: A common theme throughout history is 'having a purpose'. Most everyone I know has at sometime asked "Why am I here?" Having a purpose, a reason, for doing what you are doing makes doing it easier to do.

Myth 5: There is "the one." "There is no one thing each of us is meant to do on this planet. ... For each of us, there are dozens, even hundreds, of careers, any one of which could provide a sense of meaning and goodness. The biggest mistake is to be seduced by the myth that you're looking for the right answer, as if there is only one. For most people a 'calling' is not something you just know the moment you see it. It's something you grow into by having an impact on your organization and your community." Comment: I would like to think that I could, and would, do many other things in life and be as good (or bad) at them as I am at what I do currently. I do get some satisfaction out of thinking about the impact I have had on people. Ones who got jobs, ones who learned more, ones who passed tests, ones who ended up better off having gotten some guidance from me. Human resources really turns out to be a much more powerful position than people give it credit for being.

Myth 6: You don't know what you want. "Don't tell me you don't know what you want. Of course you know what you what you want: fulfillment, connection, responsibility... and some excitement. The real problem is figuring out how to get it. Which is hard. Of course it is hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it weren't hard you wouldn't learn anything along the way.... If you don't know how to make the best of a bad situation you will never get there. Comment: Excitment... I have thought that the best job in the world for me would be to be Indiana Jones, with one leg in the classroom and the other persuing 'scientific' adventure. Either that or be like Dirk Pitt from Clive Cussler's novels. Guess I will just settle for the time being of dealing with excitement of negotiating I-75 in Atlanta at 7 a.m.

Bronson ends his article with this statement: "If you are not willing to be humble and repeatedly be a beginner in new areas and learn the details faster than the next guy, you are not capable of transformation. Only by embracing these realities will you be able to answer the question "What should I do with my life now?" So to all you job seekers, to all you bored HR people, to everyone read some Bronson and reflect and decide if you can TRANSFORM.

Watch Out Compensation Specialists: Your Jobs Are On The Way Out

On March 29th, on Meet the Press, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared and answered questions about the current economic crisis. He made one interesting comment that I think does not match the motivations of most of the people I know. He said "But we're going to emerge stronger than this. When we get through this people are going to care less about what they make, more about what they do, what they achieve with what they make, and that will help make this country stronger." Click here for the transcript.

So we are going to care less about what we make! Well all my comp friends, Ann and Frank and Phil and Barbara, you had better start looking for another line of work. Compensation will be unimportant. Find something you like to do. Find something that will make the country stronger. Hmmm.... know how to handle a shovel?

Suggested Reading: Some Blog Referrals

As I have been brousing some blogs today and here are some posts I thought you might find interesting, I did.

1. The HR Capitalist starts a discussion on Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers in a post called How Your National Origin Can Impact Your Performance.... He discusses the concept of the Power Distance Index, a concept developed by Geert Hofstede in his Cultural Dimensions. This discussion is in terms Korean Air Lines pilots and a series of accidents. Make sure you read the comments.



2. In Dan McCarthy's Great Leadership blog he writes about The Only Reference That Really Matters . The Dilbert cartoon is worth the trip and Dan's discussion of the reference process is excellent. I agree with this assessment.



3. Ann Bares writes in Compensation Force about Bonuses and Other Profanities and the impact on current events on the proper definition and use of bonus dollars and what a commuication and PR problem HR now does have.



4. At Fistful of Talents, Kris Dunn (in his alter ego), writes about All Workplace Jerks Don't Have to Scream - The Information Hoarder... I don't know about you but I have worked with some people like that before. "I am more valuable because I know something you don't know."



5. Over at Slacker Manager, Phil Gerbyshak has a guest auther, Steve Farber writing on How Do You Get Back Up? A Counterintuitive Approach to Thriving in Challenging Times. Some good advice on what to do when things don't go your way.

So take a look at these I think you will find them interesting, insightful and useful. I did.

Compromise, Old Ways and Reform: Why EFCA Is So Important

I know alot of people are tired of the discussions on the Employee Free Choice Act. Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock Human Resources is a leader in this respect with her blog post of EFCA: I'm Bored. She says this is a tired discussion and that labor and management both missed an opportunity to come up with a new way of conducting labor relations.

Arlen Spector, the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania and a key vote on EFCA, has publicly announced he will not support the bill, thus eliminating the possibility of a vote of cloture. (Cloture means closure. Here is an explanation of it from the Senate.) In his remarks Specter also suggested that the National Labor Relations Act needed an overall. Michael Moore, at the Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog, gives a detailed explanation of Specter's remarks. My reading of this overall actually sounds still too biased in favor of unions and is not much more than another way of institutionalizing EFCA.

I am in agreement with both Ruettimann and Specter. It is time to look at modernizing and revising labor laws passed in the 1930's and 1940's. The world is a much different place now with a much different workforce. However, in order to do that both sides of the table must be interested and UNIONS are not interested in doing that. They see this time and this administration as an opportunity to regain power, using old methods and old tactics that perpetuate old union points of view. Why negotiate a new way of doing things if you think the deck is stacked in your favor? (explanation of that idiom)

That is why it is important to defeat this law! Passage will not bring about a new, even way of doing things. It will bring about a new way of doing the old things and it will be in favor of the unions. And once that is done it will be a long-time before we get reform.

Networking as Relationship Economics: David Nour

I had the very good fortune to hear David Nour, of the Nour Group, make a presentation on the value of networking and social media. David has a very compeling personal story, see his bio here, which makes his success all that more remarkable. For David networking and business building is all about relationship building. Personal contact bolstered by a superb use of social media (and smarts, drive and ambition) has made David a sought after speaker, consultant and trainer worldwide. His combination of the personal touch and the high tech touch has lead him to develop the concept of Relationship Economics.

David has a lot of insight on how to use many forms of social media, some which I already used, some I have now been able to alter to get better use of them, and some new ones with which I was unfamiliar. He talks about the concept of "relationship currancy" (helping others) and "relationship capital" (being able to ask others for help.) He gave a great example of the supposed "networker" who comes asking your for help finding a job, takes names, and then disappears, never offering you anything in return. The only time you ever see them is the next time they need a job. I have met many like that.

David also talked about what he called the 1-9-90 rule. This is the concept that 1% of the people you know are the "life of the party", in social media these are the posters/bloggers/twitters. The 9% are moderately engaged, they are the commenters, the occassional responders. And the 90% are the casual observers. These are the readers who never comment. The 1% is your high value contacts.

One key point that David left the group with, and actually started with as well, was that regardless of how much you use social media for networking or business development you can NEVER replace the "face-to-face" in a relationship.

If you ever have the opportunity to hear David Nour I strongly recommend you do so. I have bought his book and I await its arrival. Become familiar with David Nour, you will be the richer for it.